Enough About You, Let’s Talk About BUCGAW

It felt good to be back in the saddle again. I was a little overcome with trepidation before the show as I thought having taken a week off the good Rev and I would not sound so good but I’ll be damned, the show was a lot of fun. I’ve opted to go balls out with a new commenting style – less Brit Hume more Mark Radulich. In other words, though I am loathe admitting it, the only way a talk show of this stripe works is if I give more opinion and what’s in my heart than I do straight news analysis. So that means less research and more animated discussion on topics I have a solid grounding in. Having done that, I think it worked pretty well.

Even though I don’t have the expendable time like I used to, Rev John and I will still talk about the show throughout the week, hashing out what it is we want to say. However, to me the funniest and best part of the show came from a segment we didn’t confer about until about 30 seconds before the show started. The BUCGAW Report was to pretty damn entertaining this week and definitely removed some of the tension that the previous political discussion brought on. If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s worth the price of admission alone to hear Rev John and I riffing on prison show movies staring a cast of a 100 chickens.

Life Gets in the Way

I have put off writing this entry for some time now but in reality, it's probably more than a year overdue. Since I started this blog, I have tried to conduct myself as something of an opinion writer in training and have treated this blog like it was a real job. I wrote like one would exercise not just because I liked the hobby of writing but also to make myself a better writer, again like someone trying to lose weight and get in shape. When one is single and without many dependents or responsibilities, one can easily delve into a hobby such as this without much thought as to what it's consequences might be because obviously, you are only dealing with yourself. However, once I decided to get married I now had another person and her needs to consider and one cannot be completely selfish and selfabsorbed if you want your marriage to work. Marriage takes a degree of sacrifice, and frankly so does just becoming an adult. This won't be the first time I've opted to put away a childish thing in order to focus on more pertinent issues in my life.

That being said, with a flailing interest in political opinion writing and a life that consumes more of my time away from the computer, it is with some regret and more hope for better things that I have decided to stop writing on a weekly basis. If my heart were still in this I might try to fit it in, in leiu of something else but frankly, until Iran or China actually attack the US or the '08 primaries start up, I can't get excited with what I'm seeing in the news today and that by itself is reason enough not to pursue weekly blogging to the exclusion of all else or the detriment of my life off of the computer. Not to mention the fact that my new job (as of 3/12) will not really permit me the luxury of cosying down with the computer for long enough that I can actually compose something of value.

I have just enough energy to continue with the radio show which you can still find here with my thoughts and occasionally, time permitting, I will still throw something up for giggles but that's about all I can muster.

Thanks for reading (all 12 of you a day).

Next on Progressive Conservatism Live...

MARCH 18TH - Mark will be busy cleaning and doing his housework. Rev. John will just be drunk all weekend. Sadly, there will be no Progressive Conservatism Live this Sunday.

However we will return next week (March 25th) with a look at Mitt Romney and...we have no idea what else. That's where you come in. What topics would you like us to kibitz aboot on the show?

And if you miss us that badly, you can click here for all our archived shows.


Find out what grinded Mark's gears this week:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ConfirmSubscribe&friendID=144579825

And hey look, Rev. John has a blog too:
http://blog.myspace.com/brodigan2016

go to blogtalkradio.com

Gingrich Vs Cuomo, Mark Vs People Who Hate the BIG, John VS Hypocrites, and Bengali Cows VS Chickens

It would have been nice if the Blog Talk Radio system had been working properly. I could finally see the buttons but one of them didn’t work and of course we got cut off again. Meh.

Outside of that, I thought the show went well. It seems like the hour just flies by now. I probably could have done an entire hour on just the economy and the BIG but obviously we had other stuff to get to.

I encourage those of you who write me about my column to call into the show and discuss your points further. I promise not to bite.

Lastly, though John’s already had a break, I need a weekend off. With the changing of jobs taking place and other personal matters I just need a moment to reconfigure my life and get things rolling again. So again, no show next week but when we come back, we should be refreshed and ready to rumble.

Monologue:

Why Our Emerging Robotic Nation Needs a Basic Income Guarantee

The Rise and Fall of a Basic Income Guarantee Bill in the United States Congress

US Economy Risks and Strategies 2007-2017 (V1.2)

Is this really the strong economy we are being lead to believe?

Gingrich Vs Cuomo

the "Lincoln at Cooper Union" dialogue series: Gingrich Vs Cuomo

The BUCGAW Report

Missing chicken mystery in Bengal solved

Narcissistic College Students

Narcissism and the End of Social Cohesion

Narcissism and the End of Social Cohesion

I was at a training recently and one of the younger social workers in the room was talking to me about the need for more certified male mentors. This came from a discussion about how when case managers gather services for families, almost all of them end up requiring some form of therapy as well as respite/mentor services. The obvious reason being that there is typically no father present or the one that is around is not functional in the home. The picture we were describing is a rather common one: boys of all races and ages growing up with no positive male role models and in turn never being taught nor having the opportunity to develop appropriate coping skills for boys.

Though the conversation zigged and zagged from one topic to another, even to the extent that we were seriously discussing what has been the long term effects (if any) that the Million Man March had on getting black men to return to their families to raise the children they brought in to this world. That’s when someone at the table looked up from their lunch of chicken and rice and said rather profoundly, “You know, the men of this country may be pigs but the mothers out there aren’t much better and in some cases they are worse.”

This is absolutely true. Many drug-using mothers had abandoned an untold number of teenagers I treated when I worked in an inpatient drug rehabilitation facility when they were born or any number of years after. Others were not abandoned but they might have done better if they had been given up for adoption as their mothers continued to use drugs all throughout the child’s life and tended to bring in men who in more cases than I care to recount, molested them.

There are a multitude of reasons why young people use drugs, become unfit parents, take unnecessary risks and even commit serious crimes. These reasons range from socio-economic to psychological. However, if there is one common thread that links the awful behavior of a low – no income crack addicted mother to a drunken irresponsible high-income frat boy is the unfortunately common trait, narcissism.

“The terms "narcissism", "narcissistic" and "narcissist" are often used as pejoratives, denoting vanity, conceit, egotism or simple selfishness. Applied to a social group, it is sometimes used to denote elitism or an indifference to the plight of others,” according to Wikipedia.

You can follow the line of regression from the Post World War II era to where we are now by looking at a number of factors. After WWII we see in the US the rise of suburbs and a distinctly self-sufficient middle class. It’s never been uncommon for parents to want better for their children than they themselves one experienced but now not only can parents provide a better life for their children but also, one with less and less responsibility for others. In other words, where once families had to think about each other in order to survive, slowly but surely the roles of the younger family members in which they were the caretakers of older generation were replaced by the government (social security) as well other unintended consequences of modernity.

To put it in another way, from the end of WWII until now we’ve had the dubious convenience of not having to care for others because the government and lord knows what else would do it for us. As more money and opportunities unfolded for the happily progressing American family, so did the devil of selfishness grow, feeding on the steadily declining idea of community. No sooner were we as a country throwing overboard the social mores that had helped civilization grow out of the darkest corners of Africa, were we giving in to behavior dictated by the basest impulses in the human psyche. It didn’t happen overnight but this did happen. Sixty to seventy years ago, it was not typical for people to have children out of impulse and then not take care of them because their own needs were not being met. From a socio-anthropological point of view, we flipped as a people from one where the needs of others outweighed the needs of the one to the needs of the one are the only needs that exist (until one’s conscience kicks in).

There is no question that we’re more narcissistic as a society today than we ever have been. The real question is whether or not we’ve hit the point of no return. One has to wonder if the trend of the last 40 some odd years have gone past the point of being irreversible. Twenty years ago one could argue that so long as we walled up the poor areas of America and kept it’s malevolent influence away from the proverbial children, well then, frankly who’d care if the poor burned themselves into oblivion. However, 20 years since even then, when many thought we could sweep poverty and its subsequent generation of immoral behavior under the rug, we’ve seen the richest and most potentially successful amongst us give rise to the same, if not worse behavior run amok throughout the country.

You may have heard that, “A new comprehensive study suggests today's college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors.

Five psychologists who conducted the study worry the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society. The study suggests narcissists "are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity" and lack emotional warmth. The study also suggests narcissists are also more likely "to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors."

The study examined the responses of more than 16,000 college students nationwide who completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006. The researchers say NPI scores have risen steadily since 1982.” (Source)

So even the data suggests that the most affluent amongst us are just as selfish and ego-integrity deficient (look it up folks) as the people mostly associated with the worst in human nature. My question is that if the rich Caucasian prom queen has just as much of a chance of tossing her baby in the dumpster as a the resident inner city minority crack whore, then where is this trend leading us as a society? In other words, if all the kids of the generation which is to be the caretaker of those of us whom are say, 40 or older, only care about themselves and can’t generate any decent or long lasting relationships with anybody on the planet, then how are we supposed to proceed as a society?

The simple math is this: we’ve abandoned, both literally and figuratively, 2 – 3 generations of children who, out of survival instinct, have learned to only fend for themselves and are not capable of caring for others thus there will be no stewards of the future left to take care of the country when the rest of us are gone.

As I asked the young lady at the training rhetorically but with a worried heart, “How does one undo 40 years of teaching people it’s OK to be selfish?”

The answer to that question may hold the key to this country’s future.

This Sunday on Progressive Conservatism LIVE!

MARCH 11TH - Mark won't shut up about Newt Gingrich. Rev. John won't stut up about Randy Couture. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing at all. It's exactly what you've come to expect from the only BTR show that doesn't suck as bad as the others...Progressive Conservatism Live. And unless Newt wins the world title and Randy makes people think he might run for President just so he can collect a few sheckles on the lecture circuit, here's what you can look foward to:

We take a look at the Newt Gingrich/Mario Cuomo debate and what it (at least should) mean for America.

College kids are spoiled. That's news?

We give the U.S. Economy a swift kick in the nuts.

All this plus...you guessed it...the BUCGAW Report! It's all this Sunday at 12:30 PM EST. You can click here for all the necessary information.


Find out what grinded Mark's gears this week:
http://blog.myspace.com/punkrockconservative

And hey look, Rev. John has a blog too:
http://blog.myspace.com/brodigan2016

go to blogtalkradio.com

Having Fun with Global Warming, Welfare, Smokin’ Joe Biden, and Jesus

Confession time kids…I’ve been a bit depressed lately for a variety of personal, professional and other reasons. Some of this depression was caused by the show itself and some affected the show but I’ve taken my own advice and things are better now. One of the changes I’ve made is my attitude with regards to the show as per my own professionalism versus how much fun it is. Right now, I think I have to have more fun with it than I might it if were my job. The reality is that it’s not my job. It’s not John’s job either and that’s the issue for me at hand. As I’ve said in previous posts, I love doing the show but I can’t stress myself out week after week trying to make what amounts to a garage band sound like the John Williams Symphony Orchestra recording Star Wars. So in the spirit of my newfound outlook on the show, the answer is yes, I had fun doing the show today. I talked openly and honestly about subjects I know very well and just gave my opinions in a natural way. I don’t have control over who listens or what they think, just what I believe is good for me and the show in that order.

Overall, I think having fun and not taking it too seriously will be good for the show in general. I’ve heard the serious shows on BTR and I’m not overly impressed or entertained. Maybe that’s what others will say about my show but I’m the one who gets up early on Sundays to do it (with Rev. John) and if I’m not enjoying it but it sounds professional then what’s the point?

Personally, I thought all the segments sounded pretty good even though we had some more tech difficulties yet again. That’s the way the cookie crumbles I suppose. Till next time folks…

Intro/Monologue

Matt Drudge v. Al Gore

“Smokin’ Joe Biden” in 1,000 Words or Less

Joe Biden For President

The BUCGAW Report

Teenage suicides in Japan linked to bird flu vaccine

Welfare Reform and You

On Welfare and the Alternatives

Conspiracy or Quack: James Cameron Finds Jesus’ Tomb

Jesus tomb found, says film-maker